Roe is history, ladies!

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/breaking-supreme-court-to-overturn-roe-v-wade-...

BREAKING: Supreme Court to Overturn Roe v. Wade, Per Draft of Majority Opinion Obtained by POLITICO

POLITICO obtained a draft of the opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito.

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” he writes, also referring to Planned Parenthood v. Casey. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

***
Alito means GOPers who are on missions to steal 2022/24 elections across the country.

Horrific and only the beginning of the loss of rights.
There can be no equal rights for women without their own reproductive freedom.

History was made around 9 p.m. Eastern time on May 2, 2022. This draft drop has magnified the importance of this year's election outcomes a thousand-fold.

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/mcconnell-seethes-over-scotus-leak-in-fiery-se...
McConnell Seethes Over SCOTUS Leak in Fiery Senate Floor Rant: ‘Liberals Want to Rip the Blindfold off Lady Justice!’

***
If Lady Justice was raped, she would have to carry the product of that rape for nine full months!

An illegally constituted court declares all women in the United States to be the slaves of, the literal property of the state that they happen to be in.
Republicans, rejoice, celebrate the end of the rule of law.

Anyone who believes that women are human beings must now stand up and be counted.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., provided the following statement:

To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed. The work of the Court will not be affected in any way.

(nytimes)

I'm sorry, the what now? Integrity? Of the Supreme Court? Meaning the Supreme Court that includes Clarence Thomas? This is the John Roberts who was appointed by an unelected president appointed by, wait for it, the Supreme Court talking about the integrity of a court that includes Gorsuch and Barrett, both of them illegally appointed, and the rapist Brett Kavanagh?

Roberts needs to get that word out of his mouth.

"about 700 women die each year in the United States as a result of pregnancy or delivery complications." https://www.cdc.gov › pregnancy-relatedmortality Doesn't include suicides...

"If other countries are a guide, abortion restrictions won’t reduce the number of abortions that take place: According to the Guttmacher Institute, abortion rates in countries where abortion is legal are similar to those in countries where it’s illegal. In parts of the world where abortion is illegal, botched abortions still cause about 8 to 11 percent of all maternal deaths, or about 30,000 each year." https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/10/how-many-women-die-illegal-ab...

"Every year, worldwide, about 42 million women with unintended pregnancies choose abortion, and nearly half of these procedures, 20 million, are unsafe. Some 68,000 women die of unsafe abortion annually, making it one of the leading causes of maternal mortality (13%). Of the women who survive unsafe abortion, 5 million will suffer long-term health complications..." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2709326/
------------------------------------------------------------------------

WHO issues new guidelines on abortion to help countries deliver lifesaving care
Access to safe abortion critical for health of women and girls
WHO | 9 March 2022

...When abortion is carried out using a method recommended by WHO, appropriate to the duration of the pregnancy and assisted by someone with the necessary information or skills, it is a simple and extremely safe procedure.

Tragically, however, only around half of all abortions take place under such conditions, with unsafe abortions causing around 39 000 deaths every year and resulting in millions more women hospitalized with complications. Most of these deaths are concentrated in lower-income countries – with over 60% in Africa and 30% in Asia – and among those living in the most vulnerable situations.

The guideline includes recommendations on many simple primary care level interventions that improve the quality of abortion care provided to women and girls. These include task sharing by a wider range of health workers; ensuring access to medical abortion pills, which mean more women can obtain safe abortion services, and making sure that accurate information on care is available to all those who need it.

For the first time, the guidelines also include recommendations for use where appropriate of telemedicine, which helped support access to abortion and family planning services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Removing unnecessary policy barriers facilitates safe abortion access

Alongside the clinical and service delivery recommendations, the guidelines recommend removing medically unnecessary policy barriers to safe abortion, such as criminalization, mandatory waiting times, the requirement that approval must be given by other people (e.g., partners or family members) or institutions, and limits on when during pregnancy an abortion can take place. Such barriers can lead to critical delays in accessing treatment and put women and girls at greater risk of unsafe abortion, stigmatization, and health complications, while increasing disruptions to education and their ability to work...

https://www.who.int/news/item/09-03-2022-access-to-safe-abortion-critical-for-he...

Reduce the number of abortions? By eliminating reproductive health care for women piece by piece over the last decades, the anti-woman movement has caused countless unplanned pregnancies, and as a result, uncountable numbers of abortions.

We have to remember that the "anti-abortion" movement doesn't give a damn about stopping abortions. They are ideologically committed to ending full human rights for women, and they will do anything, including murder, to accomplish their purpose. Remember also that if the number of abortions goes down, the people who have gained power and prestige by being at the top of this movement to enslave women lose their power and prestige. They do not want that to happen.

If anyone who reads this group actually wants to see fewer abortions in the US, the first step is to ensure that all women in this country have free access to a full range of reproductive health care services - including abortion, on demand, with no conditions. Those who seek to restrict this access have to live in the responsibility for their actions.

All of this is happening because around 80,000 voters in swing states were able to flip the presidential election win to Trump in 2016.

>8 kiparsky: Wish, too, that women had the financial and social resources that they could continue their pregnancies, if they so choose... I don't know how women / families of meager resources do it.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/amazon-reimburse-us-employees-tra...
Amazon to reimburse U.S. employees who travel for abortions, other treatments

The decision makes the online retailer the latest company to respond to Republican-backed state laws curbing abortion access, helping employees bypass them.

***
More corporations have to step up and show that they care about the lives and families of their female employees.

>10 margd: Well, gee, it's almost like you're suggesting that worker-friendly policies of the sort viciously opposed by Republicans might actually tend to reduce the number of abortions performed... could that possibly be true?

But wouldn't that mean that Republicans like the Kentucky Tortoise are objectively pro-abortion?

Deplorable.

>10 margd: Medicaid, SNAP (food assistance), and donations from coworkers, neighbors, church friends, and any relatives who care. Though they still struggle with basic needs, especially in conservative areas.

‘When the penalty for rape is less than the penalty for abortion after the rape,
you know this isn’t about caring for women … (but) about controlling them.’

-Amanda Gorman (2019)

3:09 ( https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1521584379088314378 )
____________________________________________________

MeidasTouch.com @MeidasTouch | 2:21 PM · May 3, 2022
Texas Paul REACTS to leaked abortion decision: "Get out there and make those sons of bitches pay."

5:45 ( https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1521555537988489217 )

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1521551422931845123

I believe that a woman’s right to choose is fundamental. Roe has been the law of the land for almost fifty years, and basic fairness and the stability of our law demand that it not be overturned.

We will be ready when any ruling is issued.

2:05 PM • May 3, 2022

More than a few responses ask why President Biden is waiting for a ruling.

https://twitter.com/AWolfeful/status/1521525810313670656 | April Wolfe

My kingdom for one mainstream reporter to just say the obvious that any court that includes a rapist, a woman bound to submit to her husband, and a man who HELPED HIS WIFE TRY TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT should not be the arbiter of our laws and rights.

12:23 PM · May 3, 2022

The BIG picture in this election year ~

The inflation problem is going to ease going forward. The fact that American women are about to have FEWER rights than their mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers is going to be a never-ending assault on about 53% of America's population. The person who carried out the leaking has brought the bleak outlook into stark focus. America's 250th birthday celebration is not going to be an uplifting occasion if this horrifying override of Roe takes place.

Good riddance.

>17 Molly3028: American women are about to have FEWER rights than their mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers

>18 Kuiperdolin: Good riddance.

Always classy, this guy. Always classy.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the claim that Alito’s draft references “domestic supply of infants.” So I went looking:

https://www.truthorfiction.com/domestic-supply-of-infants/

Appears to be true. Please prove it wrong.

This most welcome Roe gift from Trump's SCOTUS members should make the GOP very happy. Modern-day GOP cult members/voters most likely welcome this much more than they would have welcomed an overturning of Obama Care. GOP reps are finally realizing that their present-day "clientele" need the Obama Care option in their lives.

>20 2wonderY: Unless it's changed, there's no shortage of infants of color... Some were adopted by Canadians. Also, lots of older US kids available for adoption listed at MARE as I recall?

>22 margd: Yes, I realize that, and the comments elsewhere reflect that. But it’s the commodification of babies that is so disturbing.

Infants are preferred, because a type of political conservative Alito seems to represent believe infants are easier to form into what certain religious leaders want them to be. Essentially, infants are supposed to be easier to scare into submission for the rest of their lives. Government pays the families for raising the children "right". (There is considerable profit made in the stealing and selling children into foster and adoption systems in the USA! This runs alongside the considerably less efficient systems for children thought to have lesser value. (Blech.))

It's as if a politically dominant section of society hasn't progressed since the 19th century. The federal government reportedly still allows wealthy groups to lock up marginalized children (refugees at the border, currently) until the children can be placed in abusive households that are supposed to indoctrinate or convert them. And we still have people in the highest positions of power decrying instead of suppprting basic civil rights.

After Roe is overturned next month, I envision state GOP reps around the country introducing legislation to stop the sale of morning-after pills in their states.

>25 Molly3028: Already underway, I'm afraid.

Start envisioning restrictions on contraception, further weakening of workplace assault protections and domestic violence laws, banning of prohibitions of marital rape, all of which are advocated by supporters of the pro-rape right wing.
Sadly, it's not unlikely that they'll start shooting doctors again, since they've been emboldened by this so-called court. They have an easy five votes to call it "protecting the unborn", and they have no respect for human life, so there's not really any reason why they wouldn't. However, that'll probably not happen until after the midterms.

>26 kiparsky:

I specifically mentioned the morning-after pill because it induces an abortion.

>27 Molly3028: No, it does not. Emergency contraception, aka "the morning-after pill", prevents pregnancy. There is no embryo to abort until weeks after fertilization. Certainly, there's no fetus.

Not that all our legislators or judges know this--or even care to know.

>25 Molly3028: kiparsky is correct. This is already happening.

The push to ban abortion pills, emergency contraception, and regular birth control will increase. If Roe vs. Wade is overturned, more of the legislation restricting medical care will pass. That's what we all need to envision.

>28 aspirit:
I was indeed wrong.

Fertilization missions ~ The male GOP reps care about sperm having unencumbered access to eggs 24/7.

>29 Molly3028: I think the goal really has nothing at all to do with sperm and eggs. The goal is to ensure female subservience to male dominance. At least, that's the common thread that I'm seeing - it's all about ensuring that women are kept "in their place".

I really don't know why these people don't just move to Afghanistan.

>30 kiparsky:

Roe changed the dominant/submissive dynamic in relationships. Many of today's GOPers want a return to the good old days ~ the sperm carrier ruled the roost and determined the laws-of-the-land.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/07/enforced-childbirth-is-slavery-m...
‘Enforced childbirth is slavery’: Margaret Atwood on the right to abortion

***
Life in America four years before the 250th birthday celebration!

During the 100-year anniversary for women's right to vote in the USA, what many of us saw was not a celebration of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution but calls to repeal it.

A loud and dangerous minority continues to have more support than the majority. It's not that there weren't celebrations, educational campaigns about voting history, and massive protests for women's rights and related civil rights in 2020. It's that the political actions not by extreme conversatives weren't supported enough in news media or by the cruel joke of governments we had to be easily seen across the country (or portrayed as anything other than "attacks" somehow).

This is a looping path the USA is on.

Republicans Are Wasting No Time Pushing Dystopian Post-Roe Laws
IT’S GONNA GET SO BAD
Max Burns | May. 09, 2022

Having all but won the SCOTUS abortion war—the GOP’s twisted, totalitarian worldview is being laid bare for the entire world to see.

What Republicans are planning goes far beyond ending legal abortion as defined in the landmark case Roe v. Wade—and past what even many self-identified Republican voters want. In court challenges and proposed legislation from Idaho to Florida to Congress, the GOP has expanded its war on reproductive freedom to include their worst theocratic fever dreams.

Criminalization of miscarriages. Bans on condoms, IUDs, and other forms of birth control. Stripping pre-existing abortion protections from state constitutions.

These laws and bills represent not only the biggest backwards step in reproductive freedom in American history, they finally showcase the GOP’s twisted, totalitarian worldview for the entire world to see.

After days of dodging any comment on the substance of Justice Samuel Alito’s sweeping draft decision, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell finally offered a preview of nightmares to come. Republicans would be “more definitive” in their anti-choice agenda after the court overruled Roe, McConnell told USA Today on Saturday. That includes possibly criminalizing abortion nationwide if Republicans win back the White House and Congress in 2024....

https://www.thedailybeast.com/republicans-are-wasting-no-time-pushing-dystopian-...

"The most vital issues are precisely the ones where it’s important to compromise in order to win."

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias | 8:01 AM · May 9, 2022:
Writer and editor, Slow Boring. Senior Fellow, Niskanen Center. Bloomberg columnist. ...

Text ( https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1523634222090493952/photo/1 )
Winning after Roe
People want the vast majority of abortions to be legal
Matthew Yglesias | 5/9/2022
https://slowboring.com/p/winning-after-roe

---------------------------------------------------------------

February 28, 2022
Senators Collins and Murkowski Introduce Bill to Codify Supreme Court Decisions on Reproductive Rights: Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey

In contrast to the sweeping Women’s Health Protection Act, the Reproductive Choice Act would simply codify Roe, Casey protections

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced legislation today that would codify the abortion rights established by Roe v. Wade (1973) and affirmed by Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). The Senators will also file their bill, titled the Reproductive Choice Act (RCA), as an amendment to the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), which the Senate will attempt to take up this evening.

“I support the abortion rights established by Roe v. Wade and affirmed by Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Our legislation would enshrine these important protections into law without undercutting statutes that have been in place for decades and provide basic conscience protections that are relied upon by health care providers who have religious objections to performing abortions,” said Senator Collins.

“I have always supported a woman’s right to choose, the precedents established by Roe v. Wade, and the limitations the Supreme Court has placed on laws regarding abortion services. With the Supreme Court set to rule on an abortion-related case later this year, we should codify current protections into law so that women can be confident their reproductive freedoms will not be abruptly reduced or eliminated,” Senator Murkowski said. “I have long supported a woman’s right to choose, but my position is not without limits, and this partisan Women’s Health Protection Act simply goes too far. It would broadly supersede state laws and infringe on Americans’ religious freedoms. The fact that my choice is between this bill, or nothing at all, shows how insincere Majority Leader Schumer is about protecting women’s rights. Failing to conduct any outreach and reducing this important issue to nothing more than a designed-to-fail show vote is a disservice to women across America.”

The WHPA, by contrast, goes far beyond what is necessary to codify the abortion rights in Roe and Casey. For example:

The WHPA would supersede all other federal and state laws, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which both Senators Collins and Murkowski support because it provides critical protections for religious liberties. Congress has never before adopted legislation that contains an exemption to this religious liberty law, which was authored by Majority Leader Schumer when he served in the House and passed by overwhelming, bipartisan margins in 1993.

The WHPA’s overly broad language far exceeds Roe by striking down state laws such as those that require certain materials to be given to the patient, prohibit sex-based abortions, or require parental or guardian notification for minors seeking an abortion.

By contrast, the RCA closely tracks the Supreme Court’s decisions in Roe and Casey and would provide reassurance to women that the reproductive rights they have relied on for nearly 50 years will continue to be the law of the land. It does not include any of the extraneous and over-reaching provisions in WHPA. In particular, the RCA:

Would prohibit states from imposing an “undue burden” on the ability of a woman to choose whether or not to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability;

Would continue to allow states to enact regulations to further the health or safety of a woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy, while clarifying that unnecessary health regulations that have the purpose or effect of presenting a “substantial obstacle” to a woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy constitute an “undue burden”;

Would continue to permit states to restrict the ability to terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability, except when necessary to preserve the life or health of the woman as consistent with Roe and Casey; and

Would not have any effect on laws regarding conscience protections, including laws that protect health care providers who refuse to provide abortions for moral or religious reasons.

https://www.collins.senate.gov/newsroom/senators-collins-and-murkowski-introduce...

Click HERE for the text of Senators Collins and Murkowski’s bill ( 3 PAGES, https://www.collins.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/rca_bill_text.pdf )

If Roe Falls, Is Same-Sex Marriage Next?
Adam Liptak | May 8, 2022

The leaked draft opinion that would eliminate the constitutional right to abortion sent mixed signals about what other precedents might be at risk.

...Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., provided conflicting signals about its sweep and consequences. On the one hand, he asserted, in a sort of disclaimer that struck a defensive tone, that other rights would remain secure.

“To ensure that our decision is not misunderstood or mischaracterized, we emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right,” he wrote. “Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.”

On the other hand, the logic of the opinion left plenty of room for debate.

It said a right to abortion cannot be found in the Constitution or inferred from its provisions. The same could be said, using the draft opinion’s general reasoning, for contraception, gay intimacy and same-sex marriage, rights established by three Supreme Court decisions that were discussed at some length in the argument in December...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/08/us/politics/roe-wade-supreme-court-abortion.h...

>30 kiparsky: They want their own American made ‘Christian’ theocracy is what is going on with these clowns. There isn’t really a lot of difference between ours and theirs apart from a dress code and one is Christian and the other Muslim. The ends are more than less the same. Hardcore paternalistic jerkoffs weaponizing religious beliefs to claim power over others.

Mitch McConnell Won’t Rule Out a National Ban on Abortion if GOP Regains Power
Todd Neikirk | May 8, 2022

...The senate minority leader (Mitch McConnell) told USA Today, “If the leaked opinion became the final opinion, legislative bodies — not only at the state level but at the federal level — certainly could legislate in that area. And if this were the final decision, that was the point that it should be resolved one way or another in the legislative process. So yeah, it’s possible...With regard to the abortion issue, I think it’s pretty clear where Senate Republicans stand. And if and when the court makes a final decision, I expect everybody will be more definitive. But I don’t think it’s much secret where senator Republicans stand on that issue.”...

https://hillreporter.com/mitch-mcconnell-wont-rule-out-a-national-ban-on-abortio...

>38 margd: Right. So who thinks eliminating the filibuster is still a good idea?

>38 margd: contd.

National Republican Senate Committee
Sen. Rick Scott, Chairman | May 3, 2022

INITIAL TAKEAWAYS FROM OPINION RESEARCH ON ABORTION (3 p)
...
BE THE COMPASSIONATE, CONSENSUS BUILDER ON ABORTION POLICY
While people have many different views on abortion policy, Americans are compassionate people who want to welcome every new baby into the world. Most Americans agree that:
• Abortion should be avoided as much as possible.
• States should have the flexibility to implement reasonable restrictions.
• We should do all we can to encourage more adoptions and fewer abortions.
• We should care for and support pregnant women in difficult circumstances.

EXPOSE THE DEMOCRATS FOR THE EXTREME VIEWS THEY HOLD
Joe Biden and the Democrats have extreme and radical views on abortion that are outside of the mainstream of most Americans.
• They support late term abortions.
• They demand that taxpayers pay for abortions.
• They want abortions to be on demand and oppose any and all reasonable restrictions, such as prohibiting abortion for gender selection reasons, or even limiting abortion to the first trimester.
• In fact, they have opposed every single restriction on abortion for nearly 50 years. Restrictions on late term abortions, gender selection abortions, medical safety regulations for abortion clinics – all are strongly opposed by the radical left.

FORCEFULLY REFUTE DEMOCRAT LIES REGARDING GOP POSITIONS ON ABORTION AND WOMEN’S HEALTH CARE
Joe Biden and the Democrats have and will continue to spread lies about where Republicans stand on abortion and women’s health care. The facts:
• Republicans DO NOT want to take away contraception.
• Republicans DO NOT want to take away mammograms or other health care provided specifically to women.
• Republicans DO NOT want to throw doctors and women in jail. (margd: a 4-Pinocchio claim according to WaPo) Mothers should be held harmless under the law.

AMERICANS SUPPORT REASONABLE RESTRICTIONS ON ABORTION
If Roe v. Wade is overturned, state and local officials closest to the people will make laws that reflect the will of their states. Some states like California will allow abortion on demand at any time for any reason; other states will place reasonable restrictions on abortion.
• Elected officials, not unelected judges, should reflect the consensus of the people.
• Science has progressed since Roe v. Wade. Today, we know:
o Unborn babies can feel pain very early. (margd: used to amaze me that baby boys were circumcised w/o anesthetic--used to think they didn't feel pain like adults do)
o After six weeks, we can hear their heartbeat.
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_development#/media/File:2037_Embryonic_Devel... )
o Modern sonograms show unborn babies smiling, yawning, and sucking their thumbs. ( "reflex smiles" https://pathways.org/when-will-my-baby-smile/ )
• Restricting late term abortions is a reasonable consensus position, but Joe Biden and the Democrats reject both reason and consensus on this issue. (margd: last I looked Am Assn of Obstetrics and Gynecology hadn't signed off on such a ban.)

CALL DEMOCRATS OUT FOR USING OBSESSION OVER ABORTION TO AVOID TALKING ABOUT THEIR RECORD
• Democrats hold extreme views on abortion that are out of the mainstream. But, their other policies are so absurd that they would rather talk about abortion.
• Biden and the Democrats are making every American poorer, less safe, more dependent on other countries for energy, and making America weaker. (margd: !)
• Inflation is skyrocketing, gas prices are rising, crime is raging and our southern border is in crisis.
• But Democrats want to obsess and spread lies about abortion because they’ve not only failed to address the concerns of the American people; their agenda has made things worse.
• While Democrats are voting nearly 100% of the time with Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer, Republicans are focused on getting the economy back on track and keeping your family safe.

FINALLY…
The coming days will feature a slew of Democrats who are angry, strident, rigid, science deniers on the issue of abortion. Republicans must be the opposite, demonstrating compassion and kindness toward all people, mother and child, born and unborn. One of the greatest and most unique things about America is the way we strive to take care of the least of these, the way we value defense of the defenseless, the desire to protect the weakest members of our society – the sick, the poor, and the elderly. (margd: Rs would tax poor, attack Soc Sec, ACA, etc.) Unborn babies deserve protection too. The Democrat position is extreme and strident, our position should be based in compassion and reason.

SAMPLE STATEMENT
“This is a draft opinion, so we will wait to see what the final decision of the Supreme Court is in the coming months. The leak of this document is troubling and is indicative of the Radical Left’s (mard: some think it was a R clerk) mission to undermine the institution of the Supreme Court and ultimately pack the Court with liberal judges who will rubber stamp the Democrats’ radical agenda. It’s wrong and the leaker should be found, fired and potentially prosecuted. I am pro-life, but this isn’t about political labels. I believe all Americans want us to welcome every child into the world with open arms. But if you disagree with me, my door’s always open. I’m always willing to listen. Science makes it very clear that unborn babies are human beings. They feel pain, they suck their thumbs, and they have a heartbeat. Every abortion is a tragedy. I believe we must make it easier for women in difficult circumstances to choose adoption instead of abortion. And if that means they need some assistance, we should help them protect these babies.”

SAMPLE LANGUAGE FOR PRO-LIFE REPUBLICAN AD
• Sarah Republican here. You know me, I’m the person John Democrat attacks all the time.
• The problem with Mr. Democrat is that he just doesn’t seem to care about the truth.
• I’m not in favor of putting women or doctors in jail (margd: R legislation fine/jails MDs.). I would never take away anyone’s contraception or health care (margd: ACA). That’s just the typical BS you get from politicians.
• Here’s my view – I am pro-life, but in reality, forget about the political labels, all of us are in favor of life.
• I believe all Americans want to welcome every child into life with open arms. But if you disagree with me, my door’s always open, I’m always willing to listen.
• Science makes it very clear that unborn babies feel pain, they suck their thumbs, and their heartbeat can be heard after a month of pregnancy.
• I believe we must make it easier for women facing difficult circumstances to choose adoption instead of abortion. And if that means they need some assistance, we should help them protect these lives. (margd: !)
• I’m Sarah Republican, the gift of life is the greatest thing each of us has ever received. I approve this message.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21847940-nrsc-memo-on-dobbs?responsive=1...

1 through 39 :

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG! There's contraception!?!?!?!?!?! You mean pregnancies may be prevented!?!?!??!!??!? When did this happen?!?!?!?!?!

_____________________________________

"Abortion is the most common means of birth-control."*

______________________________
* (only in the "Third World's poorest countries)

Woman lawyer on PBS reminded us that women of childbearing years have only known Roe. They made life plans with Roe in background. This is not just a gender issue, it's generational.

>39 davidgn: Do you really think that it makes a difference? If McConnell doesn't want to abide by the filibuster, he won't. Doesn't matter what the democrats do.

>41 proximity1: Is it possible that you're unaware that the American Taliban's' jihad against contraception goes well back before Roe?
Can even you be living in a state of such perfect ignorance that you think of abortion as a form of birth control?

Fucking hell, I know you're not capable of writing this stuff, but couldn't you at least review it before you spew it?

Currently the democrats have two ‘pro life’ Senators. Joe Manchin-West Virginia (why does this shitbird keep popping up?) and Bob Casey Jr.—Pennsylvania. That pretty much offsets Collins and Murkowski with Murkowski possibly getting primaried in Alaska. It’s quite possible Mitch McConnell could pull off some real shit if he becomes Senate leader again.

Maybe NYS might want to start withholding all the federal funds that end up going to states like Kentucky? These days you can decide to ignore subpoenas and court orders and just like Trump do what the fuck you want without consequence. They’re not going to throw Gov. Hochul in prison so…..

>40 margd: "Republicans DO NOT want to throw doctors and women in jail."

... as if Republicans haven't been trying to criminalize medical actions and have succeeded enough times to prove they (should) know the consequences of their restrictive laws....

Aaargh, some of the statements look as if the GOP is maybe kind of trying to stay near enough to reality to make fact-checking difficult for anyone entirely new to these debates, but no, not this one.

Politifact: "'Republicans DO NOT want to throw doctors' in jail."
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/may/05/national-republican-senatorial...

MSNBC: "Actual GOP proposals disprove the party’s abortion talking points: On the one hand, GOP candidates are being told to say, 'Republicans DO NOT want to throw doctors and women in jail.' On the other hand, there’s reality."
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/actual-gop-proposals-disprov...

The point was hardly subtle: Democrats will eagerly paint Republicans as extremists who will push radical prosecutorial ideas, which is why it’s important for GOP incumbents and candidates to reassure the electorate that the party’s goals are reasonable and mainstream.

It would be an important point — if it were true.

But it’s not. Politico reported today, for example, that Republicans in state legislatures have “already enacted mandatory minimum sentences that would go into effect if Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion is handed down.” Those policies include the prospect of felony charges against physicians.

Related measures that would open the door to prosecuting women are advancing right now.

I doubt it's a coincidence Republicans want more reasons to jail people, which is what criminalizing life-saving medical services does (other than destroy the lives of actual children, adolescents, and adults). Of course it's not only about hatred, not only about apathy for actual humans, not only about control over minority religious practices, but also about financial greed, from the looks of it.

I need to eat dinner, so I'm going to quickly post only a couple links without more explanation of the example.

Open Secrets: For-profit Prisons Contributions to Legislators
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries./indus.php?ind=G7000

2021-22 Top Recipient Jerry Moran (R-KS) wants to continue to give the unborn "a voice in the legislative process" through "the democratic process" instead of letting parents and the pregnant speak for their potential children and own selves.
https://www.wibw.com/2022/05/03/kansas-congressional-delegation-reacts-leaked-us...

GOPers make me want to puke. GOPers can't imagine why women are so upset about the SCOTUS Roe decision which is most likely coming in June. The GOP's protests would be sanctioned and taking place all around the country 24/7 if their gun rights were involved in a similar leaked-brief situation, however. And Tucker Carlson and his ilk on FOX News would be claiming the end of the world was coming.

"If the Court denies women the right to safe abortion, it will be a judicial endorsement of state control over women—a breathtaking setback for the health and rights of women, one that will have global reverberations."

Why Roe v. Wade must be defended.
The Lancet Vol. 399 No. 10338 p1845 Published: May 14, 2022
https://thelancet.com/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(22)00870-4/fulltext

Text, highlighted ( https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1524897472987811840/photo/1 )

Lancet cover ( https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1524894050964279296/photo/1 )

- Eric Topol @EricTopol | 7:41 PM · May 12, 2022

FWIW, Alito's rationale for rejecting Roe is that "abortion is not part of the American tradition".

This claim deserves to be demolished since it's completely baseless. Anyone familiar with the history of the issue will be aware that abortion was practiced by women for centuries before Europeans came to America, and the practice continued in the colonial period. In fact, I recently became aware that Ben Franklin published instructions for such a procedure. When the Founding Fathers are publishing abortion manuals, it's perfectly idiotic to deny that abortion has been a part of American life for as long as there's been an America.

Now as we've seen, facts don't seem to matter to the so-called pro-lifers (note, once again, that they call themselves pro-life despite the fact that they're happy to murder doctors and their patients, both with bullets and through enforced medical malpractice) but surely this must be at least a little bit embarrassing to anyone trying to support this ruling. Or am I making a mistake in assuming that these people are capable of shame?

What everyone gets wrong about evangelicals and abortion
Evangelicals started speaking out against legal abortion long before the late 1970s
Gillian Frank and Neil J. Young |May 16, 2022

...simplified history of abortion ignores the vast and decades-long, Catholic-led antiabortion movement and the coincident politicization of White evangelicals for nearly two decades before the 1978 midterm elections. Understanding this history is vital for making sense of the nearly 60-year interfaith movement that has led to this moment...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/05/16/what-everyone-gets-wrong-about...

The Daily Show @TheDailyShow | 12:04 PM · May 13, 2022
Conservatives think abortion rights should be left up to the states. Let’s take that argument a few steps further…

When Conservatives Say Abortion Rights Should Be Left to the States
1:38 ( https://twitter.com/TheDailyShow/status/1525144840165466112 )

>53 margd: So glad to see that someone has picked up on this.

zeynep tufekci zeynep | 8:02 AM · May 19, 2022:
Complex systems, wicked problems. Society, technology, science and more. Columbia
professor. @NYTimes columnist.
https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1527258390434562048

Unregulated technology allows many, many ways for law enforcement *or* vigilantes to identify and hunt down women suspected of being pregnant...
_____________________________________________

* We Need to Take Back Our Privacy
Zeynep Tufekci | May 19, 2022

...Congress, and states, should restrict or ban the collection of many types of data, especially those used solely for tracking, and limit how long data can be retained for necessary functions — like getting directions on a phone.

Selling, trading and merging personal data should be restricted or outlawed. Law enforcement could obtain it subject to specific judicial oversight.

Researchers have been inventing privacy-preserving methods for analyzing data sets when merging them is in the public interest but the underlying data is sensitive — as when health officials are tracking a disease outbreak and want to merge data from multiple hospitals. These techniques allow computation but make it hard, if not impossible, to identify individual records. Companies are unlikely to invest in such methods, or use end-to-end encryption as appropriate to protect user data, if they could continue doing whatever they want. Regulation could make these advancements good business opportunities, and spur innovation.

I don’t think people like things the way they are. When Apple changed the default option from “track me” to “do not track me” on its phones, few people chose to be tracked. And many who accept tracking probably don’t realize how much privacy they’re giving up, and what this kind of data can reveal. Many location collectors get their data from ordinary apps — could be weather, games, or anything else — that often bury that they will share the data with others in vague terms deep in their fine print.

Under these conditions, requiring people to click “I accept” to lengthy legalese in order to access functions that have become integral to modern life is a masquerade, not informed consent.

Many politicians have been reluctant to act. The tech industry is generous, cozy with power, and politicians themselves use data analysis for their campaigns. This is all the more reason to press them to move forward.

https://nytimes.com/2022/05/19/opinion/privacy-technology-data.html

Mark Joseph Stern (Slate) @mjs_DC | 10:37 AM · May 19, 2022:
Horrific. Red state doctors are already refusing to treat miscarriage patients for fear of being investigated and punished. Which is a tragic yet predictable consequence of abortion restrictions, which turn every uterus into a potential crime scene.

Text excerpt ( https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1527297467112472576/photo/1 )

Doctors in Alabama Already Turn Away Miscarrying Patients. This Will Be America’s New Normal.
Leah Torres | May 17, 20223:12 PM

...I was astounded by how often patients were turned away from emergency rooms and their doctor’s offices in the middle of their miscarriages. No wonder Alabama has the third-highest maternal mortality rate in the nation, I initially thought. People are denied urgent medical attention outright, which left me wondering at first if health care providers were simply negligent and not keeping up with their medical education. Or was this lack of care a reflection of discrimination? Eventually, I landed on discrimination as the cause.

But I was wrong. The reality is much worse. Instead, these medical professionals seem to know what they are supposed to do, but choose not to.

I came to this realization when I saw a patient in active miscarriage (bleeding, passing clots, cramping) who had just had an office visit with her primary physician. She was forced to wait more than 48 hours in order to get the results of her bloodwork. Doctors will sometimes check a patient’s levels of HCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin, to help distinguish miscarriages from ongoing pregnancies or ectopic pregnancies. I could not understand why someone with all of the clinical signs of a miscarriage in progress was required to wait for much-needed intervention, all the while bleeding and cramping and suffering.

I was angry that the patient’s doctor did not just provide the standard medical treatment for a miscarriage: surgically removing the contents of her uterus, which would stop her pain and bleeding. Then I saw a different patient who was actively miscarrying, and a lightbulb clicked on: The doctors were afraid of being attacked by the state of Alabama...

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/05/roe-dobbs-abortion-ban-reproductive-...

https://www.mediaite.com/news/cpac-chief-invokes-replacement-theory-to-defend-ov...
CPAC Chief Invokes Replacement Theory to Defend Overturning Roe in Stunning Remarks: ‘Start With Allowing Our Own People To Live’

***
This dude is actually admitting by his actions that the White Replacement Theory IS a present-day GOP theory it plans to use in this election cycle and beyond.

Laurence Tribe tribelaw | 11:36 AM · May 20, 2022:
Listen to @RepRaskin about who should make decisions life-changing for our own daughters — and then reflect on what Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas are about to do to all our lives:

Quote Tweet
Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen | 8:31 PM · May 19, 2022:
Per usual, no one says it better than @RepRaskin.

1:04 ( https://twitter.com/briantylercohen/status/1527446986256855041 )
From The Hill

>55 margd: contd.

FBI Searched Data of Millions of Americans Without Warrants
Chris Strohm | April 29, 2022

Surge came as bureau sought to curb wave of hacking attacks
ACLU calls it invasion of privacy ‘on an enormous scale’...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-29/fbi-searched-the-data-of-mill...

Oklahoma Legislature Passes Bill Banning Almost All Abortions
The legislation prohibits abortion from the moment of fertilization and relies on lawsuits from private citizens to enforce it. If the governor signs the bill, it would be the nation’s strictest measure, and take effect immediately.
Kate Zernike, Mitch Smith and Luke Vander Ploeg | May 19, 2022

...(OK) Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican who has pledged to make Oklahoma the most anti-abortion state in the nation.

...The Oklahoma ban goes further than the Texas law, which bans abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy. The bill defines an unborn child as “a human fetus or embryo in any stage of gestation from fertilization until birth.” ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/us/oklahoma-ban-abortions.html

Kate Riga (TPM) @Kate_Riga24 | 3:08 PM · May 17, 2022:
A Michigan judge in blocking enforcement of a 1931 abortion ban: "If a woman's right to bodily integrity is to have any real meaning, it must incorporate her right to make decisions about the health events most likely to change the course of her life: pregnancy & childbirth."
--------------------------------------------------------

Judge suspends Michigan’s 1931 ban on abortion
AG Nessel welcomes the injunction

...Court of Claims Judge Elizabeth Gleicher granted a preliminary injunction sought by Planned Parenthood of Michigan, saying the abortion ban likely violates the Michigan Constitution.

“After 50 years of legal abortion in Michigan, there can be no doubt but that the right of personal autonomy and bodily integrity enjoyed by our citizens includes the right of a woman, in consultation with her physician, to terminate a pregnancy...From a constitutional standpoint, the right to obtain a safe medical treatment is indistinguishable from the right of a patient to refuse treatment, ...

Gleicher said other Michigan laws regulating abortion will remain in full effect. The injunction will stay in place while the judge makes a final decision in the months ahead or a higher court intervenes.

“No matter what happens at the Supreme Court, abortion access remains protected in Michigan while our full case proceeds to block this antiquated law once and for all,” said Dr. Sarah Wallett of Planned Parenthood, which offers abortion services.

The attorney general’s office typically defends against challenges to Michigan laws. But Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, said she would not defend or enforce the abortion ban. She, too, believes it is unconstitutional and welcomed the injunction.

John Bursch, an attorney representing Right to Life of Michigan and the Michigan Catholic Conference, was sharply critical, saying Gleicher had written an “extraordinary, unprecedented decision.” The groups weren’t formal parties in the case but were allowed to file opposing briefs.

“This is the kind of mess that you end up (with) in the court system when the state’s chief executive and its attorney general refuse to uphold and defend the law that has been in place since 1931...They may not like it. But no one has the ability to unilaterally ignore, change, encourage the invalidation of Michigan law. They should be working through the democratic process just like anyone else.”

It’s possible that the Republican-controlled Legislature could file an appeal. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, meanwhile, called the ruling a victory. “It will help ensure that Michigan remains a place where women have freedom and control over their own bodies”...

...The lawsuit by Planned Parenthood is one of two legal challenges in Michigan. Whitmer, who supports abortion rights, has asked the Michigan Supreme Court to bypass lower courts and declare the 91-year-old law unconstitutional. That effort is pending.

...Gleicher, who also serves as chief judge on the Michigan Court of Appeals, informed the parties in April that she makes annual contributions to Planned Parenthood and, as a lawyer, represented the organization in a 1997 abortion case. She said she didn’t feel it should disqualify her.

“She should have recused herself,” Bursch said. (margd: like Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself??)

https://www.ironmountaindailynews.com/news/local-news/2022/05/judge-suspends-mic...

https://www.mediaite.com/news/watch-republican-senator-makes-jaw-dropping-remark...
WATCH: Republican Senator Makes Jaw-Dropping Remarks About Black Women and Maternal Mortality in His State

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy gave a jaw-dropping answer to a question about the maternal mortality rate in his home state of Louisiana, pointing out — among other things — that it’s not so bad if you don’t count all the Black women.

>62 Molly3028: OMFG.

And this man is allowed to walk the streets.

Jeff Sharlet JeffSharlet | 4:59 PM · May 26, 2022:
Author of THE FAMILY, now on netflix, THIS BRILLIANT DARKNESS. Next book: THE UNDERTOW. Contrib ed @vanityfair.

The governor of Oklahoma, who just signed a bill banning abortion, period, is being primaried by another Republican who says life begins *before* conception. Yes, you read that right.

His name is Mark Sherwood. "I believe life begins in God before it begins at conception," he says, claiming every life is pre-planned by God even those that begin w/ rape, as he says his did. He's saying--& I'm not being mean, this is his claim--that God wanted his mother raped.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

GOP Candidate Says Life Begins Before Conception, Even in Cases of Rape
Aila Slisco | 5/26/22

..."Everybody has a purpose," (Mark Sherwood) continued. "Jeremiah 1:5: 'I knew you before you were created in the womb.' So, I believe life begins in God before it begins at conception."...

https://www.newsweek.com/gop-candidate-says-life-begins-before-conception-even-c...

>64 margd: Sounds like a justification for rape, doesn’t it?

>65 2wonderY: "It was meant to be..."
These idiots place precious little responsibility on men--or society... :(
Certainly aren't listening to science or MDs when they come up with this stuff. Just Jeremiah...
A gleam in one's eye, that's all it takes, and to deny that gleam is to thwart God's will???

:) :/

When men decide to be allies.
Photo of t-shirt ( https://twitter.com/ananavarro/status/1531263542422343683/photo/1 )

- Ana Navarro-Cárdenas @ananavarro | 9:17 AM · May 30, 2022
Proud Nicaraguan-AMERICAN. I ❤️ hyphens. Catch me on CNN @Telemundo @TheView

.

Opinion of the Court
THOMAS , J., concurring
KAVANAUGH, J., concurring
ROBERTS , C. J., concurring in judgment
BREYER, SOTOMAYOR, and KAGAN, JJ., dissenting
--------------------------------------------------------

Megan McArdle (WaPo) @asymmetricinfo | 10:13 AM · Jun 24, 2022:

"Held: The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives."

(213 p) https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf

Thanks to Trump and his enablers, America had an insurrection and Roe has been overturned. The unraveling of America just before its 250th birthday is happening at breakneck speed.

It was kind of unofficial before but today marks it officially that we no longer have separation of church and state.

>70 lriley: Yup - SCOTUS now officially stands for Supreme Christians Of The United States. I wonder what part of the Constitution will be their next choice for use as toilet paper in their Supreme commode.

Supreme Catholics of the United States? So many nominated and confirmed by politicians who represented a minority of their citizens...

>72 margd: that too. Welcome to the beginning of an unending dark age of minority rule with no majority rights. I hate to say it but I'm with >69 Molly3028:, I think 2025 will be the celebration of the second year of an insanely cruel and violent dictatorship.

Guns, privacy.

Lessee, next up is the First Amendment? Whether boycotting Israel is protected speech.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-appeals-court-rules-that-laws-against-israel-bo...

You know, like boycotting South Africa in apartheid era or tea in 1770s?
---------------------------------------------------------

Tweet below must be referring to Thomas's last paragraph on p 123 of https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf ?

Clarence Thomas just wrote in his concurring opinion that the Supreme Court should reconsider the rulings that currently protect the right to contraception, same-sex relationships, and same-sex marriage. The Republican Party is out of control and must be stopped.

- MeidasTouch.com @MeidasTouch | 10:34 AM · Jun 24, 2022

Senate Judiciary Committee @JudiciaryDems | 10:29 AM · Jun 24, 2022:
BREAKING: In light of the Supreme Court's decision in #Dobbs to overturn Roe v Wade, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing next month to explore the grim reality of a post-Roe America.

>68 margd: "Returned to the people", bullshit. Roe gave the authority to regulate abortion to the people: it gave every person the right to decide on their medical treatment. This is a bunch of fucking activist judges legislating from the bench to impose their particular fantasy of morality for the rest of us and in so doing, to declare that every American citizen is a slave of the state.

I really want to hear some of our so-called "conservatives" explain how this fits into their view of what America is. The Court has just declared that no human being has a right to make medical decisions about their own body and that freedom of religion is limited to people who belong to a few particular sects that agree with the fanatical nutbags making the rulings. How does this fit into your conception of "liberty for all"? Are you really willing to turn your conscience over to anyone who happens to get a seat on the Supreme Court, no matter how illegitimate their appointment?
In other words, have you any principles at all? If you do, this would be a good time to stand up and explain just what they are.

Laurence Tribe (Harvard Law) tribelaw | 10:51 AM · Jun 24, 2022:

It’s staggering how the Court can celebrate giving political majorities in the states control over women’s bodies the very day after the same Trump-Packed majority took from those political majorities the ability to protect lives from gunfire delivered by people concealing guns.
------------------------------------------------------

Jon Cooper @joncoopertweets | 11:34 AM · Jun 24, 2022:
If banning abortion "stops abortions," let's ban guns and stop gun violence.

Civil rights movements were set back 50 years because of bad faith appointments in the upper levels of the federal government! This feels too much like Donald Trump is still in power.

The rest of this post was removed in favor of a new thread.

>78 aspirit: Speaking of civil rights, how long will it be before they come under fire? Arguably, all of the points raised in Alito's decision (spurious as they are) apply to equally well or more so to the rights of all persons, regardless of race, gender, or physical handicap, to participate fully in American society. Certainly the founders never envisioned those as rights, which is Alito's central claim vis a vis abortion, so in their world there's no particular reason why those rights should be upheld by the Court.

>79 kiparsky: That's happening as we type. I feel Thomas and Alito wouldn't have made the statements they did with this ruling if they hadn't already planned to go after other decisions previously made by the Court.

Abortion-related "trigger laws" avoid lawsuits by delaying their effective dates until after a theoretical Supreme Court ruling returns jurisdiction of abortion to the states. With the court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization doing just that, these laws will now go into effect, though many will likely face almost immediate legal challenges.

Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming all have trigger laws that will automatically ban abortion in the first and second trimesters.

At least two states unsuccessfully attempted to put in place trigger bans: Nebraska (defeated) and Ohio (still in committee).

Other states have already passed abortion restrictions or bans that went against the Roe v. Wade decision but are as of today enforceable. These states are Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Michigan.

https://www.cnet.com/health/abortion-laws-by-state-roe-v-wade/

Al Franken @alfranken | 2:29 PM · Jun 24, 2022
Dem from MN

As I said after the Alito leak, Dems should put a bill on the floor codifying the right to birth control, and in light of Thomas’ concurrence, marriage equality and privacy.

Eric Holder @EricHolder | 1:39 PM · Jun 24, 2022:
AG 82

Make no mistake, the decisions of the last two days - guns & abortion - are not a function of legal, constitutional interpretation. They are solely the result of a change in Court personnel. This makes the Court a more obvious political institution, not one removed from politics

Prof Gina Neff ginasue | 11:20 AM · Jun 24, 2022
Oxbridge Don: Director @MCTDCambridge @Cambridge_Uni Professor of Technology & Society @UniofOxford . Proud advisor to @oiiOxford @SociologyOxford Phds.

Right now, and I mean this instant, delete every digital trace of any menstrual tracking. Please.

Bill Maher on Real Time ~ SCOTUS this week

Guns - 1
Women - ZERO

"Prosecutors in states where abortion is now illegal could begin building criminal cases against providers" | NBC News

Some legal experts fear that prosecutors will use intimate pieces of evidence, such as text messages, internet search history and period tracking apps to build their cases, as well as, perhaps, information gathered from medical professionals.

And, though states with abortion bans have focused punishment on the providers and not those seeking or self-managing an abortion, women will still be in the line of fire, said Farah Diaz-Tello, senior counsel and legal director of If/When/How, a reproductive justice group.

“We anticipate an increase in people being criminalized in spite of what the law says, because of the additional surveillance, stigma and scrutiny on pregnancy outcomes on people who are suspected to have had abortions,” she said.

To build their cases, prosecutors, sometimes working hand in hand with law enforcement, will rely on “dragnet criminal surveillance tools” such as geofence warrants that seek information on a person’s whereabouts, online keyword searches, text messages and medical apps, said Emma Roth, a staff attorney with the National Advocates for Pregnant Women.

Evidence can also include GPS data, purchasing history, social media activity and phone call records, she said.

“These mass surveillance tools have the potential to sweep hundreds or thousands of people within their ambit and subject them to potential investigation and prosecution,” Roth said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/prosecutors-states-abortion-now-illegal-beg...

edited to correct the link

If there are any church, mosque, synagogue goers here upset by this ruling I might suggest (especially if your priest, minister, rabbi or mullah is happy about this ruling) turning off the tap to whatever way you help fund their ministries or whatever you might call them. Truly these tend to be more conservative institutions but it’s not like everyone who worships this god or that think the same nor have they ever. A national boycott of moderate or left leaning religious believers IMO would have real effect. Put that money to better use and if you need to donate to somebody….try Planned Parenthood.

>74 margd: contd.

Clarence Thomas wrote that justices “should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell” (p 119)

Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, (1965) was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects the liberty of married couples to buy and use contraceptives without government restriction. (Wikipedia)

Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558, (2003) was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that sanctions of criminal punishment for those who commit sodomy are unconstitutional. (Wikipedia)

Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644, (2015) is a landmark civil rights case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. (Wikipedia)

(margd: Notably, Thomas didn't mention not Loving v Virginia (1967) ... (miscegenation))
-----------------------------------------------------------
ETA:

Daniel Goldman @danielsgoldman | 10:20 PM · Jun 24, 2022:
Fmr Lead Counsel, House Impeachment; AUSA, SDNY... Running for Congress (NY-10)

When you read Clarence Thomas’s concurrence, where he calls into question many other rights based on the fundamental right to privacy, remember that he testified unequivocally in his confirmation hearings that there is a right to privacy in the Constitution.

Maddow Blog @MaddowBlog | 11:30 PM · Jun 24, 2022

A national ban on abortion wouldn't necessarily need Republicans in charge of Congress and the White House. This Supreme Court could effectively do it on its own (by declaring fetal personhood), and apparently would.
2:05 ( https://twitter.com/MaddowBlog/status/1540537948063633410 )

Tough luck, child-victim of incest...
( List of youngest birth mothers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_youngest_birth_mothers )

Laurence Tribe (Harvard Law) tribelaw | 8:53 PM · Jun 24, 2022
There are no exceptions for victims of rape or incest in:
Alabama
Arkansas
Florida
Kentucky
Louisiana
Missouri
Oklahoma
Ohio
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas

The New Abortion Bans: Almost No Exceptions for Rape, Incest or Health
Most of the state abortion prohibitions that would go into effect if Roe v. Wade is overturned do not contain carve-outs that were once widely supported by abortion opponents.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/09/health/abortion-bans-rape-incest.html

Certain conservative politicians are eagerly pushing the myth of a six-week "fetal heartbeat" this weekend. Legislation has been based on it. The problem is that the phrase ignores actual biology and other sciences.

At that stage if development, the "heartbeat" is an inaudible embryonic pulse of electrical activity in cells that will later form part of a heart. The entire embryo is no bigger than a quarter inch in size and is not viable (that is, it cannot survive on its own).

Additionally, the embryo's existence is often unknown by the people who have not been testing for pregnancy—if, for example, they were not trying for pregnancy. A third of known pregnancies are confirmed by testing after six weeks.

https://www.livescience.com/65501-fetal-heartbeat-at-6-weeks-explained.html

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/09/02/1033727679/fetal-heartbeat-...

https://www.ansirh.org/research/research/one-three-people-learn-theyre-pregnant-...

i am so glad i don't live in the usa and so sorry for those of you that have to experience the cutting edges of neoliberalism and fundamentalism. when rosa luxemburg talked about the future being socialism or barbarism, this is the sort of thing that makes me realise how right she was.

Alito Ignores Abortion Backlash and Rebuffs Justices’ Critiques
June 24, 2022

...Justice Samuel Alito’s abortion ruling overturning Roe v. Wade remained largely unchanged from the version leaked to the public in May—but in responding to the dissent and concurring opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, Alito did add some important new elements to the decision.

Among the most notable is a bolstering of “fetal personhood rights,” which give fetuses the same rights as a person, and could be used to strike down state laws allowing abortion.

“According to the dissent, the Constitution requires the states to regard a fetus as lacking even the most basic human right—to live—at least until an arbitrary point in a pregnancy has passed,” Alito wrote. “Nothing in the Constitution or in our Nation’s legal traditions authorizes the Court to adopt that ‘theory of life.’”

The added language suggests that if a state—or even the federal government—passes a law saying life begins at conception, they’re going to uphold that law, said Laura Portuondo, a reproductive rights and justice fellow at Yale Law School...

...legal scholars say it was striking to see how much of the draft remained unchanged, especially since the draft was dated Feb. 10.

“It was surprising because the draft was criticized not only for its results, but for its reasoning and also for a number of errors in its treatment, in particular, of the historical sources that Justice Alito looks to,” said Elizabeth Sepper, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law.

...Equal Protection
In his draft opinion, Alito briefly dismissed an alternative argument for upholding the right to an abortion based on the equal protection clause.

The theory is that abortion laws are subject to greater scrutiny because they discriminate on the basis of sex.

Alito didn’t bolster his equal protection analysis in the final draft, saying only that neither “Roe nor Casey saw fit to invoke this theory, and it is squarely foreclosed by our precedents, which established that a States regulation of abortion is not a sex-based classification and is thus not subject to the ‘heightened scrutiny’ that applies to such classifications.”

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/final-opinion-overturning-roe-closely-...
---------------------------------------------------------------

Laurence Tribe (Harvard Law) tribelaw | 7:43 AM · Jun 26, 2022:
Alito’s boast that his shredding of fundamental personal rights in #DobbsvJackson needn’t worry anyone except women capable of serving as breeders is, shall we say, troubling — being both false and a confession to misogyny. Since when was it a defense to say “I hurt only women”?
----------------------------------------------------------------

Decades Ago, Alito Laid Out Methodical Strategy to Eventually Overrule Roe
A slow-burning hostility to constitutional abortion rights runs through the career of the author of the Supreme Court opinion overturning them.
Charlie Savage | June 25, 2022

...The move has cast a spotlight on a man who has otherwise been a lower-profile member of the court’s conservative bloc since his appointment by President George W. Bush more than a decade ago. It has also drawn attention to glimpses of how he slowly and patiently sought to chip away at abortion rights throughout his career before demolishing them in the majority opinion on Friday...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/25/us/politics/samuel-alito-abortion.html

Like Joe Manchin has kind of usurped the role of POTUS by controlling the agenda of the Democratic Party Clarence Thomas has done the same usurping the role of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court--setting their agenda for the near future on guns, Roe and most probably upcoming same sex marriage. They've done this end around on Roberts by forcing through the Kavanagh and Coney Barrett appointments.

Meanwhile the congress is giving more security to Supreme Court justices who then turn around and make the population deal with all the gun maniacs they've let loose to do as they will.

Collins isn't that stupid. Maybe she didn't think they'd move as fast as they did but she had to know these people were going upend Roe which further divides the country and really if we were to do a referendum that would separate the northeast from the rest of the country into it's own nation I would vote for it.

No Justice Alito, Reproductive Justice Is in the Constitution
Michele Goodwin | June 26, 2022
Ms. Goodwin is a chancellor’s professor of law at the University of California, Irvine, and author of “Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood.”

...This Supreme Court demonstrates a selective and opportunistic interpretation of the Constitution and legal history, which ignores the intent of the 13th and 14th Amendments, especially as related to Black women’s bodily autonomy, liberty and privacy which extended beyond freeing them from labor in cotton fields to shielding them from rape and forced reproduction. The horrors inflicted on Black women during slavery, especially sexual violations and forced pregnancies, have been all but wiped from cultural and legal memory. Ultimately, this failure disserves all women.

...In 1942, in a unanimous decision delivered by Justice William Douglas in Skinner v. Oklahoma, the court explained that “This case touches a sensitive and important area of human rights,” because Oklahoma sought to sterilize a man who committed petty crimes, including stealing chickens, under its “Habitual Criminal Sterilization Act.”

Justice Douglas wrote that reproductive autonomy and privacy, associated with “marriage and procreation” are “fundamental,” and a state’s interference with such rights “may have subtle, far-reaching and devastating effects.” The justices were concerned about the inequality at the heart of the law, which singled out poor and vulnerable classes of American men.

Now, 80 years later, Mississippi has already made a “clear, pointed, unmistakable discrimination,” as if it has “selected a particular race or nationality for oppressive treatment,” which the court specifically struck down and condemned in Skinner...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/26/opinion/justice-alito-reproductive-justice-co...
-------------------------------------------------------------

Instead, Alito cited Hale:

On Roe, Alito cites a judge who treated women as witches and property
Jill Elaine Hasday | May 9, 2022
Jill Elaine Hasday is a distinguished McKnight university professor and the centennial professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School. She is the author of “Intimate Lies and the Law.”

...Sir Matthew Hale...an English judge and lawyer who lived from 1609 to 1676. Hale was on the bench so long ago that his judgeship included presiding over a witchcraft trial where he sentenced two “witches” to death.

Hale believed that authorities should distrust women who reported having been raped...Echoes of Hale’s suspicion of women still reverberate in American law and culture, helping rapists avoid punishment.

Hale also wrote what became the most frequently cited defense of the marital rape exemption, the doctrine that shielded a husband from prosecution if he raped his wife. Hale explained that a woman’s agreement to marry meant that she had placed her body under her husband’s permanent dominion...

...(Alito) discusses Hale so often because he is desperate to establish that the early American legal system was opposed to abortion. He thinks this characterization of the past gives overturning Roe a veneer of legitimacy.

There are at least two problems with Alito’s reliance on history. First, Alito has misrepresented the actual historical record. As abundant historical research establishes, the common law that governed America in its first decades and beyond did not regulate abortion before “quickening” — the moment when a pregnant woman first detects fetal movement, which can happen as late as 25 weeks into pregnancy.

Alito reports that Hale “described abortion of a quick child who died in the womb as a ‘great crime’ ” while glossing over the key part of that passage. Hale wrote that abortion was a crime “if a woman be quick or great with child.” Note the “if.”

Second, Alito relies on sources such as Hale without acknowledging their entanglement with legalized male supremacy. The men who cited Hale as they constructed the early American legal order refused to give women the right to vote or to otherwise enjoy full citizenship. Relying on that history of injustice as a reason to deny modern women control over their own lives is a terrible argument but apparently the best Alito can do.

Hale was a man who believed women could be witches, assumed women were liars and thought husbands owned their wives’ bodies. It is long past time to leave that misogyny behind.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/09/alito-roe-sir-matthew-hale-mi...

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/wait-what-congresswomans-rally-stage-thank-you-to...
‘Wait, What?’ Congresswoman’s Rally Stage Thank You to Trump For Roe Decision Shocks The Internet

"I want to thank you for the historic victory for ~ white ~ life in the Supreme Court yesterday."

***
Vile ideas which have been growing in the fertile minds of GOPers have the bad habit of escaping from their lips at the most inopportune times!

>96 Molly3028: We can name her here:

“ Republican Rep. Mary Miller sounded like she made a shocking comment after Former President Donald Trump introduced her to the stage during the Save America Rally on Saturday evening.

Miller is a representative in Illinois’ 15th Congressional District serving in her first term in office and running again in November. Trump has endorsed her re-election ahead of the primary.”

18 Ways the Supreme Court Just Changed America
POLITICO MAGAZINE | 06/25/2022

‘People who seek abortions will seek to circumvent these laws.’

'Young people ‘won’t see this country as a democracy.’

‘This decision will push abortion to the center of every political race in the country and polarize U.S. politics even more.’

This decision will ‘give both parties an opportunity to move toward the center on abortion.’

‘The court’s invalidation of Roe v. Wade will fire the starting gun on yet another wave of overtly violent conflict.’

‘In a post-Roe America, I am hopeful that our society will rebuild, and our communities will heal.’

‘It’s hard to see how the issue will do much at the national level.’

This decision will ‘place the reproductive health of Black women and other women of color at great risk.’

‘The American people will be forced to talk to one another, reason together.’

Expectant parents will not be able to fully use the powerful tools and knowledge of genetic testing and prenatal screening.

The decision will ‘exacerbate the partisan and regional division on abortion that is already in place.’

‘There will be civil war.’

The anti-abortion movement will ‘look to the conservative justices for protection for fetal personhood.’

The court could craft ‘a new, more modern and justice-focused decision upholding the right to abortion.’

‘Conservatives must urgently embrace a whole-life approach.’

‘Making abortion illegal will not materially affect the number of abortions.’

‘A trajectory of many years of laws that increasingly see women’s health and autonomy as secondary to those of fetuses.’

‘Abortion opponents will not be appeased until abortion is entirely eliminated.’

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/06/25/post-roe-america-roundup-00042...

>98 margd: ‘Making abortion illegal will not materially affect the number of abortions.’

It was never meant to, of course. So-called "anti-abortion" advocates have never cared about preventing abortions, if they did they'd have sought to pursue measures known to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies and therefore the number of abortions performed. Those measures would have included greatly increased access to reproductive health care and family planning services, serious fact-based sex ed in all schools from an early age, addressing the domestic violence crisis in this country, and an end to the practice of treating marital rape as somehow acceptable.

The pro-misogyny lobby has opposed all of these things, and it is no great feat of prognostication to foresee that they will respond to the upcoming increase in abortions with more aggressive and punitive measures against the American citizens who exercise their legitimate right to own their own bodies.

Lawmakers v. The Scientific Realities of Human Reproduction
The Editors (NEJM) | June 24, 2022
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMe2208288 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2208288

The just-announced U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization represents a stunning reversal of precedent that inserts government into the personal lives and health care of Americans. ...

By abolishing longstanding legal protections, the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade serves American families poorly, putting their health, safety, finances, and futures at risk. In view of these predictable consequences, the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine strongly condemn the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision.

https://boingboing.net/2022/06/27/corporations-who-helped-overturn-roe-v-wade-in...
Corporations who helped overturn Roe v. Wade include Coca-Cola, General Motors, Comcast, Walmart and Amazon

JENNIFER SANDLIN
What's truly gross is that most of these corporations claim to support women, while simultaneously donating money to groups that fought for the repeal of Roe.

Sen Cruz and others looked for violence from the pro-choice protesters, but other than the nutball who stalked Kavanaugh, violence seems to have come from the right and the state--tear gas, snipers, Proud Boys, a truck, etc... They are really looking for a fight?

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/06/27/rqth-j27.html

Some think the outrage will end in a news cycle or two. But then the bodies and the sad stories will come...

Jennifer Gunter @DrJenGunter | 8:59 PM · Jun 27, 2022:
OB/GYN, appropriately confident, lasso of truth, Canadian Spice, I speak for no one but me. The Vagina Bible. Menopause Manifesto. Body Stuff. NYT contributor.
https://twitter.com/DrJenGunter/status/1541587001773903874

The abortion law in Canada in the 1969 and more recently in Ireland were both changed because of empathy. In Canada, the coroner of Ontario was so damn sick of seeing dead women he held an inquest for every abortion death. Wanted the public to see the carnage. 1/

And the pubic were outraged. Seeing it over and over again.

In Ireland the public was outraged over Savita Halappanavar’s death (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Savita_Halappanavar). They felt it deeply. 2/
...
_________________________________________________________

As I recall, it was maternal deaths that originally led the AMA to support abortion rights. Unlike the US Supreme Court, AMA's support hasn't wavered:

Press Release
Ruling an egregious allowance of government intrusion into medicine
Jack Resneck, Jr. M.D., President, American Medical Association | Jun 24, 2022

“The American Medical Association is deeply disturbed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn nearly a half century of precedent protecting patients’ right to critical reproductive health care—representing an egregious allowance of government intrusion into the medical examination room, a direct attack on the practice of medicine and the patient-physician relationship, and a brazen violation of patients’ rights to evidence-based reproductive health services. States that end legal abortion will not end abortion—they will end safe abortion, risking devastating consequences, including patients’ lives.

“Today’s opinion shifting reproductive health decision-making to lawmakers opens a deep political rift between states over access to reproductive health services that places sound medical practice and the health of patients at risk. State restrictions that intrude on the practice of medicine and interfere with the patient-physician relationship leave millions with little or no access to reproductive health services while criminalizing medical care.

“Access to legal reproductive care will be limited to those with the sufficient resources, circumstances, and financial means to do so—exacerbating health inequities by placing the heaviest burden on patients from Black, Latinx, Indigenous, low-income, rural, and other historically disadvantaged communities who already face numerous structural and systemic barriers to accessing health care.

“In alignment with our long-held position that the early termination of a pregnancy is a medical matter between the patient and physician, subject only to the physician’s clinical judgment and the patient’s informed consent, the AMA condemns the high court’s interpretation in this case. We will always have physicians’ backs and defend the practice of medicine, we will fight to protect the patient-physician relationship, and we will oppose any law or regulation that compromises or criminalizes patient access to safe, evidence-based medical care, including abortion. As the health of millions of patients hangs in the balance, this is a fight we will not give up.”

https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ruling-egregious-allowance-...

Laurence Tribe (Harvard Law) tribelaw | 6:44 AM · Jun 30, 2022:
For those opposing abortion because they think life begins at conception,
prohibiting IVF embryo destruction might be easier to justify than prohibiting abortion,
since it doesn’t interfere with the bodily autonomy of women already gestating a fetus.

What the Supreme Court’s abortion reversal means for in vitro fertilization
I. Glenn Cohen, Judith Daar, and Eli Y. Adashi | June 30, 2022

A substantial portion of the US population faces infertility — the National Institutes of Health reports that 15 percent of heterosexual couples are unable to conceive after one year of trying.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/06/30/opinion/what-supreme-courts-abortion-reve...

Tweets below reminded me that Supreme Court ruling on abortion is based on Christian beliefs, so imposing beliefs on others, counter to 1st amendment. Also reminded that a (Christian) woman I know who suffered a miscarriage (spontaneous abortion) also thought in terms of the little soul seeking another chance to be brought into the world...

Dr. Sarah Ifft Decker @sarahifftdecker | 9:11 AM · Jun 26, 2022:
(Medieval historian. Feminist. Occasional pop culture enthusiast. Host of @mediaevalpod. Author of Jewish Women in the Medieval World. )
What the overturning of Roe v. Wade is not: Medieval. Shari'a law. Judeo-Christian. These restrictions have no medieval precedent and are not justified by Islamic or Jewish law. The Supreme Court is harming people with uteruses in a way that is distinctly modern and Christian.

Marsha MacArthur @marshamacarthur | 11:51 AM · Jun 26, 2022:
In Japan and most of Asia actually, this isn't an issue because people believe the spirits of the unborn have countless opportunities to incarnate, and so if a mother chooses not to give birth it doesn't mean the spirit can't try again.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Soul Journey with Sarah Moussa (Facebook)

In Japan where I live, abortion is viewed in a different way. Here many people believe the spirits of the unborn have countless opportunities to incarnate, and so if a mother chooses not to give birth it doesn't mean the spirit can't try again. The view that the unborn are spiritual beings that deserve our love and respect is shared, but women who have abortions are spiritual beings as well, and it is their right to choose.

Even knowing this, many women will feel guilt or regret for their decision. So, if you go to cemeteries near temples one often sees statues of Jizo Bodhisattvas with hats or scarves, some holding infants in their arms symbolizing infants who died and/or unborn spirits aborted or miscarried. (photo)

Women and parents will come to grieve and pray, ask for forgiveness, wish for the future happiness and return of the unborn spirit that had wanted to incarnate.

I've heard some Westerners say that the Japanese use abortion as a form of birth control. I don't think that is true at all. Most that I know take pregnancy very very seriously. To have an abortion is a tragedy. But it's also a part of the cosmic cycling of spirit from life to life. In Eastern spiritual traditions, death is viewed differently, not as final. And life is deeply cherished. To some Westerners this may seem paradoxical.

Image: Jizo Bodhisattva statue (Protector Of Children And Travelers)
https://tankenjapan.com/jizo-statues-in-japan-protectors-of-children-and-travele...

The Way of Zen – Wisdom, Compassion & Mindfulness
https://creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2014/10/24/the-way-of-zen-wisdom-c...

State abortion bans blocked by Florida, Kentucky judges
Nate Raymond and Joseph Ax | 30 June 2022

...State courts in Texas, Louisiana and Utah have also temporarily blocked bans in those states since last week, and abortion providers are seeking similar relief in states including Idaho, Ohio, Mississippi and West Virginia.

...In the long term, however, abortion rights supporters face tough odds. The highest courts in many of those states are dominated by conservative or Republican justices who may be more sympathetic to restrictions on abortion access...

Florida's ban of abortions after 15 weeks, which Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law in April, had been set to take effect on Friday. The law mirrors the Mississippi law at the heart of the Supreme Court case that reversed Roe.

In siding with Planned Parenthood affiliates and other abortion providers in Florida, Circuit Court Judge John Cooper concluded the law violates the state constitution's privacy rights guarantees, which the state's high court has said covers the right to abortion.

State law had previously restricted abortions after 24 weeks...

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/kentucky-judge-blocks-state-enforcing-a...

Kentucky has put a constitutional amendment proposal on November’s ballot to ban abortion that way. Not sure if the vote is binding.

https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/linda-blackford/article262926473.html

>103 margd: Some think the outrage will end in a news cycle or two. But then the bodies and the sad stories will come...

David Frum @davidfrum | 8:44 PM · Jul 1, 2022:
A raped 10 year old Ohio girl arrived at a doctor, six weeks and three days pregnant. Abortion is prohibited in Ohio after 6 weeks, so she must seek referral out of state. For now, it's not a crime to refer and treat her. That could change soon.

As Ohio restricts abortions, 10-year-old girl travels to Indiana for procedure
Shari Rudavsky and Rachel Fradette | 1 July 2022
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2022/07/01/ohio-girl-10-among-patients-goi...

Molly Jong-Fast (Atlantic, Vogue) @MollyJongFast | July 3, 2022:
Remember when republicans pretended to care about states rights
Text excerpt ( https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1543516414249779200/photo/1 )

America’s Post-Roe Chaos Is Here
Michelle Goldberg | July 1, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/01/opinion/post-roe-chaos.html

ABC News 4 @ABCNews4 | 2:00 PM · Jul 1, 2022
The state now asks abortion providers to send sheriff's offices reports of women who were impregnated by rape or incest and are trying to terminate the pregnancy
---------------------------------------------------------

Graziano responds to South Carolina's abortion law
ABC News 4 Staff | Friday, July 1st 2022

https://abcnews4.com/news/local/graziano-responds-to-south-carolinas-abortion-la...

David Frum @davidfrum | 9:51 PM · Jul 2, 2022
Some writers have suggested that after Roe, prolife Republicans will develop generous policies to support mothers and children. But so far the energy is with "massive fines for women who travel out of state for reasons disapproved by their local governments."

Quote Tweet
PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 @patriottakes | 1:29 PM · Jul 1, 2022:
Dedicated researchers monitoring and exposing right-wing extremism and other threats to democracy. Help fuel our efforts by contributing at the link below.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said his office is looking into fining Texas based businesses “over $100,000” each time they pay for an employee to obtain an out-of-state abortion.
0:56 ( https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1542923245061644289 )

Vincent Rajkumar (Mayo Clinic) @VincentRK | 10:22 PM · Jul 2, 2022:
Doctors. Take care of your patients please. Don't take the easy way out. We have a duty.

Quote Tweet
Becky (and - Dwight the Mini Dachshund) @BeccaLizz · Jun 30
i received an email from my rheumatologist today that they are stopping all refills of methotrexate because it is considered an abortifacient.

Methotrexate is a form of chemotherapy. But in reduced quantities it can be taken long term to help with many autoimmune diseases.

>2 KAzevedo: Yes, an unwarranted intrusion into people's lives, without regard to individual circumstances or sensitivities. A further turn of the screw as I see it. The fear is, what is to come next?

Wednesday, July 6 8pm BST, 3pm EST, noon PST (60 min. duration) ticketed streaming panel discussion.

What will the end of abortion rights in America mean for the world?

Join our panel of speakers with chair, Guardian columnist and author of Strong Female Lead, Arwa Mahdawi; congresswoman Barbara Lee, representing California’s 13th Congressional District and Kimberly Mutcherson, Dean & Professor of Law Rutgers Law School; and founder and director of Women on Waves, Rebecca Gomperts.

Joint OAH-AHA Statement on the Dobbs v. Jackson Decision

“In September 2021, the Organization of American Historians and the American Historical Association submitted an amicus curiae brief to the US Supreme Court presenting the relevant history to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case. We are dismayed that the Court declined to take seriously the historical claims of our brief…”

Read the rest here:

https://www.oah.org/insights/posts/2022/july/joint-oah-aha-statement-on-the-dobb...

>108 margd: contd.

The Misogyny Is the Point
Roe was always about power.
Molly Jong-Fast | July 06, 2022

..."A six-week-old fetus is the size of a grain of rice, but in the eyes of conservatives, that grain of rice has more rights than the 10-year-old carrying it. In Ohio, a 10-year-old cannot buy a ticket to a PG-13 movie, but she can be forced to carry her rapist’s child."...

https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/wait-what/62c59e61da4cea0020ef78fc/roe-overt...

Stephen Caruso @StephenJ_Caruso | 10:50 PM · Jul 7, 2022:
'Downer' Pennsylvania Capitol reporter @SpotlightPA | @ThePittNews alum
https://twitter.com/StephenJ_Caruso/status/1545238876297494528

The Pa. Senate has preemptively waived a rule banning votes after 11 p.m., and now is holding a committee meeting on an omninus constitional amendment including voter ID and language that "the policy of Pa. is to protect the life of every unborn child from conception to birth."

Here is the underlying bill. There's some other provisions in there as well (including having the LG be picked by the governor rather than run in a seprate primary.)
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billInfo/billInfo.cfm

"Women and their allies will not stand for this," state Rep. Katie Muth, D-Montgomery, said.

"You think people of Pennaylvania are tucked away sleeping somewhere? They will be aware of what happens here," Muth adds.

Democrats say that the amendment will ban abortion. That's not true, but advocates say that the amendment will block state courts from protecting abortion access, and provide constitutional cover for bans on contraceptives and other reproductive care.
https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2022/06/roe-v-wade-supreme-court-overturn-penns...

The abortion language has not been added yet; lawmakers are currently debating it in committee.

Abortion language added in a party line 11-6 vote.
.
.
.
"People should know at 11:29 pm this body in the dark of night is moving to eliminate the rights of women," state Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philly, says..
.
.
.
Just want to add here: Constitutional amendments in PA become law by passing the Legislature two sessions in a row (2021-22, 2023-24) then getting put up for a referendum. Assuming this measure passes Senate and House now, than the earliest it could reach voters is spring 2023

https://www.mediaite.com/news/just-in-biden-to-sign-abortion-rights-executive-or...
JUST IN: Biden to Sign Abortion Rights Executive Order – Read The White House Breakdown

Biden will be speaking at 11:30 a.m. this morning.

***
Now, voters have to keep the GOP from getting a majority in the Senate this November!

Maternal poverty levels are higher in 'trigger law' states
Nearly 1 in 4 women who gave birth in recent years in "trigger law" states lived in poverty, data shows.
Elliott Ramos | 1 July 2022

Data shows that women in most "trigger law" states are less likely to have health insurance and more likely to live below the poverty line...

https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/maternal-poverty-levels-higher-abortion-tr...

>118 Molly3028: In that respect if your state does not have an election on and you plan on donating to a Senator of another state put your money to a candidate that actually has a chance of winning like Fetterman against Oz in Pa. or Warnock in Georgia or Kelley in Arizona or the guy running against Johnson in Wisconsin. You might hate someone in the Deep South more but the likelihood of unseating that Senator is pretty damn low. In 2020 people wasted a lot of money on a conservative Democrat Amy McGrath because of Mitch McConnell and then she nearly lost her primary to Charles Booker (who was a better candidate but entered the race late) and Mitch killed her in the election.

>120 lriley: I don't see where >118 Molly3028: says anything about what races they're supporting, or even that they're involved in any races at all. However, I'm going to suggest that your analysis of donor behavior might be a bit unhelpful.

You seem to assume that a dollar spent on some "hopeless" race is a dollar not given to some more hopeful one. This would assume that retail donors are best thought of as having a fixed budget for their political donations for a given cycle, and that candidates are competing amongst themselves for that fixed pot of dollars. I think this is incorrect. As far as I can tell, and this fits the ad strategies that I have plenty of chances to observe, retail donors are for the most part impulse-driven, inspired by news cycles and well-crafted pitches from campaigns. If this is correct, then the typical pattern is that a person who has made one donation is more likely to make another, not less.

So if you want people to make a donation to Fetterman or Warnock or Kelley - all candidates that I support, btw - then you probably don't want to discourage people from making other donations. Instead, you would want to encourage them to get started, and it doesn't matter where they start, as long as they get hooked on that Act Blue hit. There'll be plenty more where that came from.

It probably doesn't seem quite so noble as we'd like it to be, but it might help to think of donations to political campaigns as being like candy bars. The problem for Hershey's is not that people sometimes buy Reese's products. The problem for Hershey's is that there are people who aren't buying candy bars. If they increase the total market, that's a win for them. Similarly, Raphael Warnock's problem is not that people are giving money to other campaigns. His problem is that there are a lot of ideologically-aligned people who aren't giving money to any campaigns at all. Once someone gets past that hump and makes that first donation, no matter what race it's in, it's much more likely that they're eventually going to give to Warnock, too.

Going beyond this, it seems to me that there's some value in investing in long shots, and that value is in developing a deeper bench. If we don't build up the left/progressive vote in places where we're not winning today, then we're certainly not going to be winning there tomorrow. So even if the dollars are "wasted" in terms of this race, if we believe that we need to eventually contend in states where we should be winning outright - like, for example, Southern states with large urban populations who tend to incline to the left - then we should probably be "wasting" those dollars, and assuming that they'll come back to us in future cycles.

All of which goes to say maybe we should chill a bit. People will donate to the races that they think are important, and that's going to be okay. It's the people who aren't donating that we want to get after.

More Than 1,000 Ohio Docs Form Abortion Rights Group
— "Physicians can mobilize," organizer says
Jennifer Henderson | July 8, 2022

...the medical community has even reported difficulty obtaining certain medications that carry teratogenic risks for the treatment of patients with health conditions unrelated to pregnancy, due to concerns about what may be deemed criminal...

https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/99650

>121 kiparsky: It's advice to try to get more bang for the buck. That's fucking all. If you don't like it that's okay too. I don't think it's worth griping 500 words or however many you wrote about it. Maybe you should chill.

>123 lriley: Sorry, didn't mean to, you know, think about stuff.

Pregnant Woman Cited for HOV Violation Says Her Unborn Baby Should Count as Second Person
The expectant mom's court date is July 20 – about the same time as her due date
Scott Gordon | July 8, 2022

...Though Texas penal code recognizes an unborn child as a person, the state's transportation code doesn’t.

Bottone got a $275 ticket. She said she plans to fight the ticket in court...

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/pregnant-woman-cited-for-hov-violation-says-he...

>112 margd: contd.

How overturning Roe V. Wade is affecting access to autoimmune medications
Deep Shukla | July 8, 2022

The overturning of the constitutional right to obtain an abortion has led some states to enact laws that ban not only surgical abortions but also medications that are used to terminate pregnancies.

Methotrexate is widely used for the treatment of autoimmune disorders, and the treatment of cancers but is also an abortion-inducing drug used to terminate ectopic pregnancies.

Pharmacists in states like Texas have reportedly refused to fill methotrexate prescriptions for individuals with ectopic pregnancies or autoimmune disorders due to fear of legal repercussions.

Methotrexate can also lead to birth defects, and the potential of accidental pregnancies in the absence of access to abortions has also led rheumatologists to reconsider prescribing the drug to women of child-bearing age...

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-overturning-roe-v-wade-is-affectin...

>126 margd: Pharmacists in states like Texas have reportedly refused to fill methotrexate prescriptions for individuals with ectopic pregnancies or autoimmune disorders

Should 'individuals' read 'women'? Or are men also disqualified on the grounds that they may pass the meds along to a woman?

>124 kiparsky: the thing I’m trying to talk about is if we’re to get around the Supreme Court we need to codify Roe and without a coherent strategy it’s just not going to get done. A 50/50 Senate with Joe Manchin is not going to do it. He won’t help. He’s pro life and anti filibuster. Sinema might not vote to codify either and there’s even the off chance that a Bob Casey might not vote to codify because he says he’s a pro life democrat too. So the democrats IMO to have a chance need at least 51 and to be safe need 53. Got to put the money to people who have a chance to win in this midterm or it’s likely to be winter for a while and nobody that’s not a nutcase wants that to happen.

This is too important to lose.

>128 lriley: I don't disagree with any of that.

>126 margd: There go them pro-lifers being pro-life again.

How many people do we think will die as a result of this particular aspect of the pro-life murder spree?

>127 librorumamans: Pharmacists can usually see the sex as it's listed on official ID. In areas where a fertilized egg might be considered a person, trans men and female-assigned nonbinary people are frequently denied medications that might impair pregnancy (regardless of whether the patients are currently fertile or capable of a successful pregnancy with the risks of the existing medical conditions requiring treatments).

>131 aspirit: Thanks. I wasn't aware of those complications.

What a mess!

Ed Morrissey (sr editor, Hot Air) @EdMorrissey | 10:08 AM · Jul 29, 2022
The assassination attempt on Justice Brett Kavanaugh had a much wider scope than first reported -- and an even stronger political motive.

"I'm shooting for 3": Kavanaugh assassin planned to target at least two other justices -- to save Roe
Ed Morrissey | Jul 29, 2022
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2022/07/29/im-shooting-for-3-kavanaugh-assassin-...

>133 margd: I'm glad that this nutcase was prevented from committing violence against the rapey little fuck Kavanaugh, because I believe that even a rapey little fuck should not be murdered to make a political point.

But since we're going to be hearing a lot about how this case somehow "proves" that people who support women's rights to bodily autonomy are violent and killy and stuff, let's just bear in mind that the "pro-life" death cult has a long head start on this sort of thing: the history of the "pro-life" movement is a couple of decades of murder, attempted murder, bombings, arson, acid attacks, and assaults - all in the name of Jesus, of course, which presumably makes it all just fine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-abortion_violence#Murders

Some family members for decades now have been concerned about my turning away from religion….specifically their Roman Catholicism. Well the kind of inflexible and unnuanced thought patterns that permeate the viewpoints of so many American Catholics and it would seem at least a very high % of Jesus believing Protestants plays a large part in that for me. Their intoleration and determination to ram their beliefs down the throats of others is not at all about ‘freedumb’ IMO—it’s more about forcing their unproven beliefs on others.

Georgians can claim an embryo as a dependent on tax returns
Sarakshi Rai - 08/02/22

The Georgia Department of Revenue said Monday that in-state residents can claim embryos with a “detectable human heartbeat” as dependents on their taxes ($3,000 per embryo).

It added that an embryo “with a detectable heartbeat” has been added to the definition of dependent, effective July 20, the date of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling which allows all abortions in the state to be banned once a fetal heartbeat is detected by an ultrasound...The July Circuit Court decision also redefined its “personhood” provision throughout Georgia law to include an embryo or fetus at any stage of development.

The statement by the Georgia Department of Revenue added that as of July 20, taxpayers can claim an exemption in the amount of $3,000 per embryo...

https://thehill.com/homenews/3584208-georgians-can-claim-an-embryo-as-a-dependen...

Kansas voters spoke loudly on abortion: Trust women. Now politicians must listen
The Kansas City Star Editorial Board | Updated August 03, 2022

In a stunning display of common sense, Kansas voters Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a constitutional amendment that would have put abortion policy completely in the hands of the Legislature, and the governor.

...In 2019, the Kansas Supreme Court said a woman’s right to choose abortion is inalienable — it cannot be taken away...We fully expect state lawmakers to push anti-choice bills next year, particularly if a Republican is elected governor. Those laws will then be tested in court.

Remember, the state Supreme Court has said some restrictions on abortion are still allowed. The rules must meet a tough standard, but they’re legal. There will be an attempt in November to dislodge sitting Kansas Supreme Court judges...

...While deeply satisfying, Tuesday’s victory should not be a reason for gloating, or pointing fingers. Abortion remains difficult, divisive and morally difficult. That’s the main reason government should stay out of the decision-making process for women.

https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article264116816.html

Eliza Orlins @elizaorlins | 5:35 PM · Aug 8, 2022:
NYC public defender since ‘09. Former candidate for Manhattan District Attorney.
We knew this was coming. Massive surveillance will lead to prosecutions. This should terrify you.

Quote Tweet
Andrew Fleischman @ASFleischman · 23h
Police used text messages to investigate a miscarriage and are now charging a 17 year old as an adult for getting an abortion.

Norfolk mother and daughter accused of illegal abortion, burning and burying body
Peter Salter | Aug 8, 2022
https://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/nebraska/norfolk-mother-and-daug...

A challenge for antiabortion states: Doctors reluctant to work there
Christopher Rowland | August 6, 2022

...broadly written abortion bans across the United States have cast a chill across the broader practice of reproductive health, say mainstream physician leaders who support abortion rights. In states without exceptions for the life and health of the woman, they say, routine standards of care are being scrapped...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/06/abortion-maternity-health-obg...

Some Women ‘Self-Manage’ Abortions as Access Recedes
Roni Caryn Rabin | Aug. 7, 2022

Information and medications needed to end a pregnancy are increasingly available outside the health care system.

...Medication abortion “is noninvasive, doesn’t cause sepsis and doesn’t cause ruptures of internal organs,” like the illegal abortions of the pre-Roe era, (Dr. Beverly Winikoff, the founder of Gynuity Health Projects, who performed much of the research on medication abortion that led to its approval in the United States more than 20 years ago) said. “It doesn’t mean people can’t have excessive bleeding and need to get care occasionally, but those are not the dire circumstances of people from 50 years ago"...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/07/health/abortion-self-managed-medication.html

Most abortions are done at home. Antiabortion groups are taking aim.
Kimberly Kindy | August 14, 2022

...In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, 14 states now ban or partially ban the use of those drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, which are used in more than half of all abortions.

But the drugs remain widely available, with multiple groups working to help provide them even to women in states with abortion bans. Students for Life of America and National Right to Life Committee, which have played leading roles in crafting antiabortion laws, hope to change that with new legislation.

The groups are pursuing a variety of tactics, from bills that would ban the abortion-inducing drugs altogether to others that would allow family members to sue medication providers or attempt to shut down the nonprofit groups that help women obtain and safely use the drugs...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/14/medicated-abortions-drugs-stu...

Louisiana hospital denies abortion for fetus without a skull
Baton Rouge woman's predicament illustrates gray area in Louisiana's abortion rules
EMILY WOODRUFF | Aug 17, 2022

...acrania, a rare and fatal condition...

https://www.nola.com/news/healthcare_hospitals/article_d08b59fe-1e39-11ed-a669-a...
___________________________________________________

ETA:

‘I’m Carrying This Baby Just to Bury It’: The Struggle to Decode Abortion Laws
Ava Sasani and Emily Cochrane | Aug. 19, 2022

At a Louisiana hospital, concerns about complying with new abortion bans in post-Roe America left a pregnant woman with a devastating diagnosis, but not an abortion...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/19/us/politics/louisiana-abortion-law.html

Implications would be endless...from child support to citizenship...

Is a Fetus a Person? An Anti-Abortion Strategy Says Yes.
Kate Zernike | Aug. 21, 2022

Fetal personhood, which confers legal rights from conception, is an effort to push beyond abortion bans and classify the procedure as murder. In Georgia, it also means a $3,000 tax credit.

...They have the potential to criminalize common health care procedures and limit the rights of a pregnant woman in making health care decisions.

...“Personhood has always been the ultimate ambition of the anti-abortion movement,” said Mary Ziegler, a law professor and historian of abortion at the University of California, Davis. “The movement very much wants a declaration that abortion is a human rights and constitutional rights violation. Not just that it’s a crime; that it’s unconstitutional. From a symbolic standpoint, that’s a really big deal to a lot of people in the movement.”

How much support the laws will find will not be clear until state legislative sessions begin early next year and will depend on whether Republicans take control of Congress in the midterms. But for anti-abortion advocates, simply returning the regulation of abortion to the states was never enough...

...The push for fetal personhood began even before the Roe decision in 1973, largely among Catholics who were upset that states were loosening broad bans on abortion to allow exceptions in the case of rape or incest, or to protect the life of the pregnant woman...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/us/abortion-anti-fetus-person.html

I’m haunted by this South Carolina Republican, Rep. Neal Collins, realizing that the anti-abortion bills he supported are now forcing women and girls to carry nonviable pregnancies at risk of sepsis, death, and loss of the uterus. All these outcomes were inevitable and predicted.

1:48 ( https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1562093978488639489 )

- Mark Joseph Stern (Slate) @mjs_DC | 11:06 AM · Aug 23, 2022

Emily Porter, M.D. @dremilyportermd | 8:10 PM · Aug 27, 2022:
https://twitter.com/dremilyportermd/status/1563680380565172224

My 55 yo friend who is having postmenopausal bleeding just called me from CVS in TX bc they refused to fill her Rx for misoprostol (used to open the cervix) bc she couldn’t prove she wasn’t having an abortion. She is having surgery in 2 days. This is what total abortion bans do.

Her gynecologist happens to be one of my besties so I texted him even though he is on vacation and he’s NOT pleased. Minced no words. She needs her cervix softened for a uterine biopsy in 2 days. So she doesn’t die. @cvspharmacy doesn’t care. @GregAbbott_TX doesn’t care.

Text fr TX gyn ( https://twitter.com/dremilyportermd/status/1563683771941097472/photo/1 )

>146 margd:

I think you posted this interesting tidbit to the wrong thread.

>147 librorumamans: Thanks--got it!

Women Are So Fired Up to Vote, I’ve Never Seen Anything Like It
Tom Bonier | Sept. 3, 2022
Democratic political strategist and the C.E.O. of TargetSmart, a data and polling firm.

...In my 28 years analyzing elections, I’ve never seen anything like what’s happened in the past two months in American politics: Women are registering to vote in numbers I’ve never witnessed. I’ve run out of superlatives to describe how different this moment is, especially in light of the cycles of tragedy and eventual resignation of recent years. This is a moment to throw old political assumptions out the window and to consider that Democrats could buck historic trends this cycle.

...As shocking as (in landslide, Kansas voters defeating a constitutional amendment that would have removed abortion protections)...was to me, what I found was more striking than any single election statistic I can recall discovering throughout my career. Sixty-nine percent of those new registrants were women. In the six months before Dobbs, women outnumbered men by a three-point margin among new voter registrations. After Dobbs, that gender gap skyrocketed to 40 points. Women were engaged politically in a way that lacked any known precedent...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/03/opinion/women-voters-roe-abortion-midterms.ht...

A 1931 law criminalizing abortion in Michigan is unconstitutional, a judge rules
Rick Pluta | September 7, 2022
Heard on Morning Edition

...Enforcement of Michigan's 1931 abortion ban was blocked Wednesday by (Michigan Court of Claims Judge Elizabeth Gleicher) who replaced her temporary order with a permanent injunction.

...Michigan Constitution's due process clause is expansive enough to cover reproductive rights.

"The Michigan Constitution protects the right of all pregnant people to make autonomous health decisions," she wrote, and later: "Exercising the right to bodily integrity means exercising the right to determine when in her life a woman will be best prepared physically, emotionally and financially to be a mother."

...The court is expected to rule this week on a challenge to the petition campaign, which gathered nearly 750,000 signatures — a record — in an effort to put a proposed reproductive rights amendment on the November ballot.*

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/07/1121600908/michigan-abortion-law-struck-down

* The challenge points to at least a dozen parts of the text of the constitutional amendment where missing spaces squish together discrete words, resulting in phrases such as "ORALLEGEDPREGNANCYOUTCOMES" instead of "or alleged pregnancy outcomes" or "DECISIONSABOUTALLMATTERSRELATINGTOPREGNANCY" instead of "decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy." https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2022/08/19/challenge-michigan-abortion...

the Board of State Canvassers split 2-2 along party lines — Democrats voted to place the constitutional amendment on the November ballot, while Republicans rejected it on technical grounds. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/08/31/voting-rights-b...

>150 margd: contd.

Michigan Supreme Court rules abortion amendment should go to voters this November
Rick Pluta | September 8, 2022

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/08/1121858922/michigan-supreme-court-abortion-amendm...

I've been taking a certain sadistic pleasure in watching Republicans realize that America hates their abortion stance enough to get off its collective ass and vote out anyone who believes that women are naturally slaves of the state, to be subjected to forced labor in support of a gynophobic position that has no basis in science, ethics, or even in the teachings of any known religion. All over the country, formerly pro-forced-labor republicans are backpedaling frantically and pretending they never joined the anti-woman jihad. Too bad for them, it's all on tape.

And now with Graham's latest blunder, I'm wondering if the title of this thread might be premature. Still a lot of ground to cover before we get there, but if the republicans continue the way they have been it's not impossible that we end up with stronger protections for women's reproductive health rights post-Roe than we had pre-Dobbs.

>152 kiparsky: kind of expecting the Dems coming out of the election in November with maybe 53 Senators. The House I think is still likely to go the other way. You can voter suppress a state but you can’t really gerrymander it like you can congressional districts. That said I don’t think the republicans are going to win nearly as many House seats as they were before that shit Court decision. They’ll lose ground at the state level in a lot of states over the next couple elections as well. I think we’ll see more women running for democratic seats too…..not that they weren’t already but both state and federal. The old guard establishment democrats in Washington for years have kind of only thought in terms of holding the majority in Washington DC and not enough about state houses.

Rex Chapman🏇🏼 @RexChapman | 12:19 PM · Oct 13, 2022:
The Mother’s Against Greg Abbott are back. Wow.

0:41 ( https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1580594164726919168 )
From Mothers Against Greg Abbott PAC

A friend who worked with underprivileged kids remembers that one mom sent kid to school in adult underwear pinned to stay up... So tough when one can't provide what one's child needs: a formula shortage in the US last summer, and in Canada currently, liquid Tylenol and Advil, are bad enough. How much worse it must feel if one just can't afford diapers or other necessities?

America is facing a diaper crisis, and the anti-abortion movement is making it worse
Sandra Salathe | October 9, 2022

..."Instead of providing direct material support to people, they're using this money for overhead costs to pay for staff salaries, to engage with SEO (search engine optimization) marketing professionals, to expand their outreach to promote themselves, and all sorts of things that are not providing services to people in need," Equity Forward Director Ashley Underwood told Yahoo Finance. "They solely exist to deter people from getting abortion care."

...Roughly one-third of U.S. families are unable to afford diapers necessary to keep their babies dry and clean, according to the National Diaper Network, which is part of an ongoing public health issue known as "diaper need." Oftentimes, diaper need can lead to a variety of issues for both baby and caregiver, affecting not only physical health but also mental and economic health.

...at least 10 states diverted or currently divert TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) dollars away from families in need and into Alternatives to Abortion (A2A) programs...(Ohio) a majority of TANF funds were used by grant recipients for marketing and overhead costs.

..."Instead of funneling money into these programs that have been more propaganda than services, we really need to be taking a close look in how we can create an infrastructure that supports parenting and supports pregnant people, and supports people to be able to make the reproductive decisions that are best for them," she said. "We just don't have that."

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/america-is-facing-a-diaper-crisis-and-the-anti-ab...

>155 margd: which brings us back to the fact that most anti-abortion people could care less about what happens to baby and mother after birth. They only care that that baby is born no matter what. If financial hardship and poverty and/or some physical or mental handicap are part of the picture afterwards they don't care about that either. As long as they don't have to reach into their own pockets.....and most being conservative definitely don't want tax dollars helping them out either whether for diapers now or school lunches later. Some of those above will exploit the system though to line their own pockets. It must be great to be so self righteous---to be able to judge others as beneath you just because....and this is particularly prevalent amongst the Christian religious conservatives.